Day 1 – to Miami

The best laid plans….

I thought I’d save a few dollars and booked parking in terminal E parking. I forgot to see where AA check-in is in Terminal E and let’s just say it was a hike. We decided to take the Terminal Link to Terminal A where we were supposed to be. Should have gotten off at Terminal D but rode it to Terminal A. About the time we got to our destination they changed us to Terminal D. Good news is that I KNOW DFW so we went ahead and checked in at A and took the Skylink back to Terminal D. First tip rule of airports and flying – start early, allow lots of time, and pack your patience!!

The military action in Venezuela does factor into everything. I always register with STEP.gov. So far there has not been anything concerning from the consulate but nice to know I will hear if anything does develop.

Our flight itself was uneventful, but once we landed in Miami, everything changed! Because of all the cancelled flights, baggage claim was an absolute mess. We arrived in baggage claim about 10:30 pm to a sea of people. None of the carousels were actually running, and no-one knew where to find their bags. The screens said one thing, announcements over the loud speaker said something else, and there was luggage sitting next to carousels everywhere. Some people we spoke to said they had been there for three hours. We waited almost two hours and after talking to American Airlines on the phone, decided to go on to our hotel and AA said they would deliver our bags to us before we checked out the next morning.

We went upstairs to find our hotel shuttle, waited about 20 minutes for the shuttle to whiz right past us without stopping. Needless to say by this time we were tired and frustrated. We took one more look for our luggage downstairs and called an Uber. When we complained at checkin about the shuttle the desk manager comped our breakfast and we headed to our room to get a little sleep. This would be the reason we always pack an extra pair of undies, a basic toiletry bag, and at least an extra shirt in our carry-on. We were able to brush our teeth and had a clean outfit for the next day.

Day 2 – Embarkation

Upon waking up, the first thing I did was call American to see if we were going to get our luggage. Good thing I did, at 8:00 am, it was still not scheduled for delivery and the agent I spoke with on the phone suggested returning to the airport. We grabbed a quick breakfast and took the hotel shuttle back to look for our bags. We decided to divide and conquer. I stood in line at the baggage office (as you can imagine, it was quite a long line) while Robert went to schmooze with the baggage handlers he could find. He located my bag pretty quickly, but could not find his bag. While waiting, I looked up our AirTags in our luggage and was happy to find that his luggage was close by. When Robert showed the FindMy app to the handler he explained that he had been there for 18 hours the previous day, he knew approximately where Robert’s bag was, but he was not allowed to leave his post to retrieve the bag. So, on to the next handler who happened to be a supervisor. She assured Robert that she could find his bag and went to find it. She returned to tell him that it would be on the carousel shortly. This was about the time I made it to the front of the line. Within a few minutes, we were reunited with both bags and on our way back to the hotel. Robert charmed the front desk into giving us a late checkout of noon so we could get a quick shower now that we had all of our luggage.

Freshly showered and refreshed, we waited for our Uber to head to the cruise port. I am able to get a few perks on Virgin, so we had priority boarding at 1:45 pm. Our Uber driver was fantastic and maneuvered traffic like a pro, getting us to the port in record time, which was quite a feat since we heard there were ten ships in port and an estimated 73,000 passengers trying to board those ships!

We arrived at the port at 1:30 pm, showed our boarding pass to the attendant and walked right into the terminal (I do like my perks!) A very short wait and it was time to board the ship. The talk among the sailors in our Facebook group yesterday was whether or not our ship would make it to Aruba and Bonaire due to the military action in Venezuela. Today we got the good news, that our itinerary would remain unchanged.

Upon embarking the ship, we first found one of our favorite members of the Happenings Cast on a previous cruise, Katie. We introduced ourselves to several other cast members and headed to our room. We dropped our carry-on bags and headed to our favorite place to start every cruise, The Dock. This is a new ship for us, so there were a few changes. We are creatures of habit, so I was disappointed to find that my favorite goat cheese polenta was no longer on the menu. However, the sangria was so I drowned my sorrow in sangria and shrimp skewers. 🤣

From The Dock, we stopped by the Social Club and had a hot dog and a pretzel with cheese. You may notice over the next few days, a lot of our activities revolve around food – maybe why I have a problem losing weight when I travel!

Properly refreshed and ready to sail, we headed up to Deck 16 to find a good spot from which to watch the sailaway party. This is one of our favorites on Virgin, especially since it includes free bubbles! My second favorite part of spillway is getting to meet some of the Happenings Cast Members. We met Elise, Dwayne the Balancer, and Oscar the Charmer and were also please to find that our resident Diva (read Drag Queen) was Dixie Krystal who we had sailed with in the past. After a toast to our voyage, we walked around the ship, checking out any changes that were made on this new ship and getting ready for dinner. Our favorite first night dinner is always Pink Agave, the Mexican restaurant, since Robert likes his good tequila and Virgin has the best tequila selection on the ocean!

After yesterday’s nightmare, we retired early to rest for tomorrow’s first day at sea!

Day 3 – At Sea

Today we started off at one of our favorite brunch places, The Wake. After our main courses, Eggs Benedict and French Toast, we had to finish with some of their amazing desserts, Apple Tarte Tatin and Coconut Panna Cotta. Today is a sea day so we wandered around until it was time to check out Oscar, the Charmer’s first show in the Sip Lounge. At this show, he does up close and personal magic for anyone who is in the lounge.

We found our way up to the Galley for lunch and on the way there heard the Captain announce that we were passing by our sister ship, The Scarlet Lady. We found a nice table by the window and I caught a glance at The Scarlet Lady passing by. After lunch we decided to check out Dixie, the Diva’s new show, “The Diva Goes West”. We usually love the Diva’s shows and this was did not disappoint. Lots of great music and audience participation. Dinner tonight was at a new restaurant, Rojo by Razzle Dazzle. Each ship has Razzle Dazzle, but each one has a different concept for Razzle Dazzle. On the Brilliant Lady, Razzle Dazzle is Spanish tapas. Since we had not been here before, we asked for a half portion of everything. That may have been a mistake since we ended up eating a lot more than we bargained for, but it was all delicious!! The oxtail and the ham croquettes were definitely standouts, as was the octopus.

Day 4 – At Sea

Another of our favorite brunch places is Razzle Dazzle. I especially like the Açai Bowl, and Robert always gets his favorite food hack, Chicken and Waffles. Chicken and Waffles is not on the menu, but waffles are and there is a fried chicken sandwich. If you order the chicken sandwich “naked” they will bring you just the chicken. Voila! Chicken and Waffles! Another must-have at Razzle Dazzle is the candied bacon. Watch out, it is addictive!

Lunch today was at the Pizza Place. In order to make my doctor happy, I started with a Caesar Salad and followed it with BBQ chicken pizza, then back up to the Galley for their fries (another addiction.)

Tonight we checked out a new show on the Brilliant Lady, Murder in the Manor. It was a bit campy, but a lot of fun! The story was of course a murder mystery, but was accompanied by 80s songs and some very talented singers and dancers.

Day 5 – Aruba

Today we finally made it to our first port, Oranjestad, Aruba. We were here last year on the Resilient Lady. Last year we had a shore excursion planned to go sailing, but it ended up getting cancelled, so we tried again and were successful this time. Our excursion was a sunset sail and BBQ dinner, so we spent the morning walking around Oranjestad. Last year, we didn’t leave the Main Street, this year we decided to go a couple of streets over and got a better look at the real Aruba. We stopped at a restaurant that Robert remembered had some good tequila and had some quesadillas and queso for lunch. After a some lunch and a little people watching, it was time to find our meeting place for our excursion.

The meeting place instructions said to meet at the “I Love Aruba” sign across the street from the Citgo gas station. We plugged into our GPS and headed in the right direction from what we could tell. When we got to where the sign was supposed to be, we did not see anything that met the description, so we crossed the street and looked some more. We located the Citgo, but there was no sign. We walked back to the port and asked one of the port security officers. He explained that the sign had been moved. I decided it was time to call the tour operator and they confirmed that we should wait where the sign used to be. 😳🤔🤣 We found a bench and waited. It took several calls, but we did eventually end up finding our driver (after Robert went into the Citgo to get an ice cream sandwich). There were 8-9 other people in the van and our driver said we had one more to pick up. When we pulled up to the Renaissance Hotel to pick up our last passenger, I started to laugh. We had seen this lady at the non-existent Aruba sign. She had decided to go in search for where they had moved the sign. Fortunately, she did get in touch with the operator and we met up with her at the hotel.

Now it was finally off to our excursion. Once on the boat, we found a comfy place on the bow to stretch out and enjoy a local beer called Balashi which was quite tasty. We “sailed”, ok, really motored out to the reef where we were treated to a guided snorkeling expedition. Robert has been quite sad that his diving days are over, but found that the snorkeling was not a bad second. He did a little diving under the water. We saw a lot of beautiful fish – Dory and her family were well represented. We swam back to the boat and were treated to a wonderful “bbq” dinner of chicken, fish, and beef skewers with beans, corn, and slaw. After dinner it was time to return to the marina. This time the captain put up the sails and we enjoyed a beautiful ride back to the dock while enjoying the sunset.

We were driven back to the port where we saw our lady ship giving props to the port.

Day 6 – Bonaire

Today we visit somewhere I have never been before. I hired a private driver to give us a tour of the island. Daniel, it turns out, is from Romania, but is living in Bonaire now. We jumped in his rental car and headed to the Salt Flats to, hopefully, beat the bus tours. I had read a bit about Bonaire and heard about the pink water, but I was skeptical. Guess what? The water really is pink!! Daniel explained that there is an algae that causes the water to look pink. It is the same algae that flamingos eat that gives them their pink color. Who knew?!

Salt is a major export for the island and at our first stop we were encouraged to fill up bags of salt to take home. Apparently it is the only thing we are allowed to take home from Bonaire (shells, rocks, etc are not allowed to go home with us.) From the salt flats, Daniel drove us to one of the areas with the slave huts. These small houses were used to shelter the Indian slaves. These slaves would walk seven hours each way to bring supplies to the villas. The sand, salt, and sun ended up blinding many of the slaves. The huts were on a beautiful beach, but the slaves couldn’t even enjoy that. Each hut would house between six and eight people. That is a lot of people for such a small shelter.

From the slave huts, we went into Kralendijk to get a little refreshment before heading to the north side of the island. Up here, Daniel explained that there were painted rocks on the side of the road that mark different trails. Yellow rocks mark diving spots, pink rocks mark hiking trails, blue rocks are for mountain bikes, and red rocks mean you aren’t allowed access.

One famous diving spot is the Thousand Steps. There are really only 79 steps, but apparently when hauling all the diving gear up the cliff, it feels like a thousand!

From the Thousand Steps, Daniel drove us to a lake in the hills where flamingos live in the wild. We were able to get relatively close to a few of them and a couple of them even did a dance for us.

After the flamingos we went into the town of Rincon

At the highest part of our tour, we found an interesting combination of cats and roosters. We also got some beautiful views of Bonaire from up here.

Daniel then brought us back into Kralendijk. On the way he pointed out a bus stop. This wouldn’t normally be anything to talk about, I mean it’s just a bus stop. However, Bonaire does not have any public transportation and never has!

We walked around the city and, if you know Robert you aren’t surprised to hear, we found a cigar lounge! Even better for Robert, they had a good selection of tequila as well. Thankfully for me, the bourbon selection was also very good.

Day 7 – At Sea

Another day at sea and I spent the morning reading in one of my favorite places, the hammock on our balcony. After lunch, we did one of our favorite classes on Virgin, Bubbles and Bites. Officially Champagne Bubbles and Fried Chicken Bites. If you haven’t tried champagne and fried chicken together, you do not know what you are missing! We got to talk with Luci, the sommelier for a little while after the class and were very happy to find out she was working at The Wake today. We had dinner reservations there and Luci introduced us to a very nice bottle of red wine.

Day 8 – Cartagena, Colombia – Cooking with Mama

In Cartagena, we booked a private cooking class with a local Mama. First, we had to get to the entrance to the port. To get to the entrance, we went through an area that included an aviary full of beautiful birds including peacocks, parrots, toucans, and many others. Most of these birds were flying free. A few were in a large aviary.

We met our host at the port entrance and she escorted us to her taxi to drive to the neighborhood in which she lives with her Mama. Maria, our host, spoke very fluent English. Mama Rocio, not so much. However Mama was the boss in the kitchen and even if she couldn’t tell us in English what to do, she quickly showed us what she wanted done and put us to work. We made some beautiful and delicious cheese empanadas to snack on while we worked. She had us make a marinade for some skirt steak that went directly into the pressure cooker. Then while Mama fried our empanadas, we started grating coconut for our coconut rice and cassava for our dessert. It felt like I was back in my Grannie’s kitchen and we were preparing lunch together. In fact, Mama Rocio said I was a very good daughter and so I think I was adopted into her family.

We took a break from cooking to walk to the market next door where Maria showed us some of the local fruits. She took her knife and cut them into pieces so we could try them. We also got to try the local beer. Then it was back to the kitchen to prepare our lunch. Maria and Rocio had set a beautiful table at her dining table in the living area of her house. Some of the family was in town (they were having a family lunch after we left.) Our lunch consisted of our cheese empanadas, shredded beef, coconut rice, fried plantains in a sweet syrup, a fresh salad, and our cassava cake. We washed it all down with freshly made passion fruit juice. The plantains had been cooked in a sweet syrup made from a local red-colored cola that tasted a lot like cream soda. The cola gave the plantains a beautiful red color. Then it was time to go so they could feed their family – we did leave them a good amount of leftovers as we could not possible have eaten everything we prepared! Before we left, Mama Rocio made sure to present us with a bag of masa so that we could make our own empanadas when we got home.

Our taxi driver arrived right on time at 12:20 pm and took us back to the port. We spent a little time perusing the offerings in the shopping village at the port and then headed back to the ship to chill.

This afternoon we took some time to try out some various establishments on the ship. First a trip to Sip Lounge to see the Charmer (the magician) over an espresso martini. Sip Lounge makes the best espresso martini on the ship. Then to the Social Club for a pretzel and cheese sauce and a hot dog for Robert. Finally, a scoop of ice cream to round off the snack crawl.

We were invited to a private magic show, but were not allowed to take pictures (they put our phones in locked bags.) We finished the day with a dinner show called “Up with a Twist” that takes place in Lady Valentina’s Emporium of Excess.

Day 9 – At Sea

Today was a chill day just hanging around the ship, resting up for the next two port days.

Day 10 – Ocho Rios – Bamboo Rafting

Today we were in Ocho Rios. I had booked a private bamboo rafting trip for this port. I expected them to pick us up at the port, take us rafting, then bring us back to the ship. We were very surprised to find that we had our driver for the full day. But first, rafting. We were driven out to a remote location (I have to admit I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to worry about someone coming to find us) but our driver was very friendly and introduced us to the captain of our raft. The raft was made of bamboo logs about thirty feet in length with a padded bench for us to sit on while our captain guided us down the river and back. There were a couple of “stops” on the side of the river where you could get rum punch or a Red Stripe and there was a stop where you could get a “limestone” massage. We passed on all the above as we had purchased a Red Stripe at the small bar before embarking on our raft. All in all, the ride was about forty minutes long.

After our raft ride, Chris our driver met us and asked what we would like to do and see. We told him that we were instructed that we could not leave Jamaica without having jerk chicken. We asked if there was anything else we should try and he suggested goat curry. So, we asked him to take us somewhere to have lunch and we invited him to join us. After lunch, he drove us up to the top of the island – just below Mick Jagger’s house – and to the Ocean View Bar where we had a drink overlooking our beautiful lady ship. On the way, we saw several performers who would jump out in front of the vehicle and hope that you would tip them. Very enterprising to say the least.

Chris then brought us back to the port and to our ship in time to get ready for dinner and our evening entertainment. Tonight’s show was called “Red Hot” and was a musical retelling of Richard Branson’s life and adventures. The man himself has been sailing with us, but up until now, we have not seen him. When the cast was taking their bows Robert turned and said, “Wouldn’t that be cool if Sir Richard showed up?” And he did. From what we can tell, he is very gracious and everyone we talked to who had met him said what a nice man he is.

Day 11 – At Sea

Just a chill day at sea. Tomorrow Cayman Islands!

Day 12 – Grand Cayman

Today we were in the Cayman Islands. When you are the smallest ship in the port, they send you to the furthest port. We had to tender onto the shore and then take a shuttle into town. The first thing we found was a cigar shop where the gentleman was hand rolling cigars. We had a Cuban coffee while Robert perused the offerings. He bought a couple of cigars and asked where he would be able to smoke them. The proprietress suggested a neighboring restaurant that had a smoking area so we could grab a bite for lunch while he enjoyed his Cayman cigar and a bucket of local beer with some delicious conch fritters!

We couldn’t stay in Grand Cayman all day, because tonight is Scarlet Night. IYKYK!! Scarlet Night is the biggest party on the ship and we always look forward to seeing the people, shows, popups and more. If you have been on a Virgin cruise, you know the story. If you haven’t, I won’t ruin it for you, but just know it has to do with an octopus queen and a sailor and the moon. Red is the color of the night.

Day 13/14 – Headed Home

Today we disembarked and said goodbye to the Brilliant Lady. We took an Uber to the Loews Coral Gables where we enjoyed an amazing pepperoni pizza with more pepperoni than I have ever seen on the pizza. It was topped with a chili honey drizzle and was more than the two of us could eat. The Loews treated us like VIPs (which we are, of course!) All good things must come to an end and we Ubered the next morning to the Miami airport and found our way to the lounge to end our journey the way we began – with mimosas!

An uneventful flight and drive back home to unpack and get ready for our next trip……Disney World! Stay tuned!!